TWCL

[ArtieAdams]

So I was looking at my websites stats and kinda getting down because it's not doing as well as I feel it should. It started me thinking about how I'm measuring my Comic's success and the degree of personal fulfillment I'm getting from it. Personal contentment with a project shouldn't be just a matter of numbers on a hit counter, right?

So here's my question to you: What is your personal criteria for whether or not your comic is 'doing well'. Is it purely a numbers thing? Do you base it on the amount of feedback you get, the fact that you never miss a deadline, etc...

Thanks

[ewomack]

I get enough hits to keep me going. If I received absolutely no hits or only a few a month, or something close to negligible, then I would start to question whether it's worth my time.

It's of course not all about numbers; I enjoy brainstorming and drawing as well. But numbers do play a role. Posting comics into a vacuum, even comics that you're proud of, probably won't satisfy many for long.

So how many hits is enough to keep me going? If I compared myself with popular internet sites I would have quit long ago. Instead I measure based upon where I started. In almost 5 years my site visits have steadily increased and right now they're as high as ever. I'm not breaking any records, but I'm doing ok enough. Again, enough to make me think that more people than my parents and grandmother are reading (and I know they are not).

It also doesn't hurt that I occasionally get really rabid feedback. My site was reviewed out of the blue a month or so ago and more than a few people have told me that they think my site is very underrated. Whether that's true (not everyone will think so, obviously), it at least gives me a boost. That all of these people were not related to me in any way (I haven't or hadn't met any of them personally) also helps. It makes me think that at least some people "get" my site and enjoy it.

If after almost 5 years I had received nothing but crappy feedback then I would wonder. In the end, it's a balancing act of related and unrelated items. Mood swings also play a part. It's actually pretty complicated.
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Ed Womack

[iaviv]

I wasn't even checking the numbers the first two years I was doing my comic, so I don't know if I'm doing better or worse, now
I'm addicted to Google Analytics at the moment, though. I'm sure it'll pass eventually, or at least I hope it does... Such a huge waste of time being glued to the screen... I have never been more pathetic.
Regardless of all that stuff - I just draw these comics because I want to. I'm not gonna be discouraged by numbers. I might be discouraged by a lot of negative feedback, though.
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[vaslittlecrow]

I'll be successful when I can call my business again, rather than a hobby.

I had to overhaul my business plan in late 2010 due to injuries, so I had to start over. But, the nice thing about being at the bottom again is that I can still try to climb up.

[Dutch]

Still being here eight years later while most of the petty creators who slagged it off in the early days are long since gone from the internet.

Mind you, I would consider myself a bigger success if I wasn't still occasionally struggling to pick up 100 visitors a day some times.
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[Lavenderbard]

Well, my husband isn't a daily reader of yours, Dutch, but when he bumped into your webcomic at random he ended up going through the entire archive. (And not because I sorta know you, because he didn't know that.) That's might be worth something?

Since I'm finishing my graphic novel before I post it, obviously getting "hits" isn't what makes me work on it. I would finish the story whether I ever got any hits or made any money. The need to tell the story is what drives me.

But I really, really, really want to be recognized as a skilled storyteller, and I want to entertain other people. It's just that even if I never am, I'll keep telling stories until I die anyway.
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[smbhax.com]

Well I want to feel like it's something worth doing, of course. Beyond that I suppose it's largely a numbers thing, although what that probably really comes down to is eventually trying to convert those numbers into smaller numbers that create other numbers with dollar signs in front of them. At some point. :P
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[ttallan]

For me, success is having a finished book in my hands. I've got two books now, so that feels nice, but the story is nowhere near complete. Real success will be when the whole gosh-darn thing is finished, and I've got a nice set of books (or omnibuses, whichever) to admire on my shelf, and I can point to it and say, "Look what I made!"
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[Dutch]

Lavenderbard wrote:

Well, my husband isn't a daily reader of yours, Dutch, but when he bumped into your webcomic at random he ended up going through the entire archive. (And not because I sorta know you, because he didn't know that.) That's might be worth something?

Aw, that... that is Gold, LB.

Your husband is my new best friend. He can come round for a barbie and a few beers any day.

So... has he been back since?

I couldn't work through a graphic novel, I don't think. I've had the idea for one stewing in the back of my heard for a year or two now, but I know I wouldn't have the time to run with it. Not and still keep this one going.

Mind you... a graphic novel in the same style... possibly wouldn't look right anyway.

Congratulations on you perseverance with it. A whole different sort of work there.
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[Mithandir]

Personally, my measure is "am I entertaining people?"

It's a difficult thing to measure. My only real data is comments that people make. Just yesterday somebody made a long comment (about three paragraphs) on one of my background pages expanding on the mythology I created and adding some jokes.

Of course I'd like more readers as well, because that increases the chance I'm entertaining people, but I'm not out to be famous.

My wife and I have been making our little comic for a very long time, and it's not always that fulfilling. Sometimes it's, as you all know, a lot of work. Last year we had a rather rough year (with baby interrupting comic a lot) and we did consider hanging up the pencils, but eventually we made it through that and now we're all excited about it again. It comes and goes.

In the end, what makes it all worth it to me is to see people enjoy what I have helped create.

[Lavenderbard]

Dutch wrote:

So... has he been back since?

I honestly don't know. I've never tracked his web-browsing. I only knew he'd read School Spirit because I happened to walk in when he was three quarters of the way through your archive, saw it up, and said, "Oh, hey I know (sort of) the guy who makes that!" and he admitted he'd been working his way through the archive for the past couple days.

He reads webcomics during slow times while playing his favorite MMORG, Puzzle Pirates. So most of the time when I walk in I see the game, not the comic hiding underneath it. If you didn't have such an amazingly huge archive, I probably never would have found out.

Dutch wrote:

Congratulations on you perseverance with it. A whole different sort of work there.

Thanks.
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[mooncity]

I just want to know people read it. And hopefully enjoy it. My comic tends to be in the "everyone likes it, but nobody reads it" category, so that makes it hard to keep going. But every now and then someone sends me an email out of the blue saying something nice, someone I've never heard of, who's not my Mom. I guess I live for that.
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Mooncity
Reversing the polarity of the neutron flow since 1976!


The comic strip that never was.

[NaarieKermie]

I consider my comic a success when people get attached to my characters. I have a very character driven story and it's vital that my readers like my characters or it just wouldn't work, you know?

When I have someone come out of the woodwork and tell me how much they love this character or they "claim" that character, I get that warm and fuzzy feeling... mixed with relief. I have my story planned out for a while but if I fail to present my characters in such a way that people empathize or relate with them then I've failed.

Honestly, my proudest moment so far was when I received a message from a teen-aged girl telling me how much of herself she could see in my main character. How everything my MC did she could see herself reacting the same way. And how much that's helped her get through the day when everything else seems grim. Then she thanked me.

No, dear reader, thank YOU.
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[Varethane]

My proudest moment was probably when I got my first piece of out-of-the-blue fanart... that was an awesome feeling. C:
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[Luke]

I took analytics off my site. I don't really care if anybody is reading it anymore. I just like to make it. It's very fulfilling.
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